Dig Deeper

Dig Deeper

Lately, God has been speaking into my heart about His desires for our relationship with Him.  He gave me a glimpse of what His plans are for us. The glimpse was an urgency that as ladies, we need to go deeper in our relationship with God. But, I wasn’t really sure where to go with it. What did it look like? How do we do that? 

Then God gave me another glimpse, which was this quote. 

“God does not want you to try harder, He wants you to trust Him deeper. Stop trying. Start trusting. This will change everything, in you.” 

Matt McMillen 

I instantly fell in love with this quote and I have re-read it many times because it is such an awesome reminder to me. By nature, I am a control freak and a doer. This past year, God has taken me on a journey with Him. Some things I have learned (and sometimes the hard way) are to trust Him, to rest in His presence, that I don't always have to be doing things, and that I don't have to be in control! So freeing! 

One night as I was trying to sleep, God gave me another glimpse. God began whispering things to me and I had to immediately write it all down - as quietly and quickly as possible, so I wouldn’t wake my husband! 

We sing and proclaim all the time about our love for God and His love for us.  At that moment, this is what I felt like God was saying to me: “So what is the next step?” What He dropped into my heart was this, “Now is the time for us to grasp HIS love for each of us. Let HIM take us deeper. Trust HIM to lead the way. Now is the time to take action. And sometimes the action is to surrender, to stop trying to do it all yourself. Let God begin doing it for you. So, surrender your shovel! Let Him dig for you! He has so much more for you!” 

When I woke up the next morning, one of the first things I saw was this quote: 

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.” 

George MacDonald 

Wow! What a strong statement! It definitely made things clearer to me. As a mom, I love my kids more than anything! However, there are times, they do something that causes me to not trust their actions or intentions at all! Does it change my love for them? - No, but it can change how I view them. It changes my trust of them. Ladies, it is so easy for us to sing songs about Gods love. We raise our hands as we are singing and worshiping God. We love on God and we let Him love on us. But when the last note is played and we step out the church doors, sometimes those feelings of Gods love for us begin to fade away. Why? We know that God loves us, but when it comes down to the details of our lives, sometimes we just don't trust Him. Things have happened to us or family members that may have lessened our trust in God and we can begin to question His actions and intentions towards us. God wants our trust! God deserves our trust!

I am more of a visual person, so lets imagine this as a peat pot that is planted with wildflower seeds. 

The peat pot represents where we dwell. We choose where we dwell and we choose what fills us. Does God dwell in you? Have you allowed Him in? Is the condition of where you dwell favorable for trust to take root, and for God to take you deeper? Have “trust issues” held you back from letting God in completely? Grasping His love for us is the fist step! Now let’s take it a step further. We need to grasp His love so that we will WANT Him take us deeper. And now that we have begun actually grasping His love for us, that is where the trust can come in, so that we will LET Him take us deeper. Let the walls of doubt and mistrust crumble around you. I feel like this has been my cry to God lately: 

“Take me deeper, show me more.Even when my mind says no, stop! 

Have my heart remind me to say yes!” 

We need to continually trust God even if that means we have to continually remind ourselves to do it! 

The wildflower seeds represent seeds of trust. Trusting God with our whole heart so that the seeds of trust can be planted in our dwelling place. It is so important to nurture the seeds with good soil so that the roots can begin to grow down deeper. Leaving the seeds in this seed packet does not fulfill the seeds purpose! They will not yield beautiful flowers if they remain in this packet. You have to open the packet, take the seeds out, dig down deep & plant them in good soil. When you do, the results are beautiful flowers! 

You need to be able to put soil over your seeds, so thats where the shovel comes in. The shovel represents all the things that we need to lay down and surrender to God! 

As I was looking at the picture of the shovels, a story came to my mind. Last summer, my Grandma’s house was needing work done on its foundation. My family decided that we would do the work ourselves. I went over to help dig around the outside of the house. What I soon found out was this was not just a “hole” I was digging. We had to dig 4 feet down and about 3 feet wide for a stretch of about 10 feet. Words to describe this task were blisters, sweat, dirt in every crack and crevice, sore muscles, fatigue and the list goes on and on. It took a long time to dig that trench! I had never been so worn out in my life! 

As I looked at the picture, I could only imagine how much more work it would have been if I only had this little shovel. I would not have gotten far at all; it would have been impossible. Thankfully, with this big shovel, and with the help of others, I was able to do so much more. I was able to go so much deeper! Without this big shovel I wouldn't have been able to break through so many objects that were in the way and reach my goal. 

Ladies, this is like our relationship with God. We go about our days with our little shovel, digging our way through trying to complete our plans and obtain our goals. But it seems to take so long, and we realize we aren’t making any progress. Then we finally stop, exhausted and worn out and finally our take our eyes off of our plans and goals and look at God. He says, now that I have your attention, look how much BIGGER my shovel is! What a visual! 

Luckily, we don't have to go through life digging our own way with our own little shovel. Ladies, we have access to a big shovel! Compared to God, we are so small! Our plans are so small and His are so big! Our ways are so much harder, His ways are so much easier! Our dreams for our lives dim in comparison to His dreams for us! We need to quit doubting and start trusting! We need to quit trying so hard to make our own way and start surrendering to Him! Let Him dig deeper for you! 

How do we do that? Surrender your shovel! If you want to go deeper, you have to give God the shovel. You have to give him control. Then watch and see what happens. You will go deeper than you ever imagined. Further than you ever thought you’d go. 

We show our love by allowing God to dig beside us/with us. But we show our trust when we put down our shovel, surrender and allow God to dig for us. Trusting that He will get us the rest of the way. 

What are things that keep us from surrendering? -Preconceived notions, pride, lack of vision of God’s plans. We don’t want to give up control. We don’t trust His timing or his plans. Or, feeling that God has let you down in the past. 

What keeps you from surrendering? What is holding you back from going deeper with God? At this time we are going to invite you to come up. We have some peat pots already planted that you are welcome to take. But, if you are able, we would like you to take this opportunity for yourself to grab a peat pot (your dwelling place), and with God beside you, grasp your shovel, fill it with good soil and plant your “seeds of trust”. Plant those seeds of trust so that your roots can go deeper. 

What happens when we Dig Deeper in our relationship with God? We are changed! Not negatively with sweat, blisters, dirt and fatigue; we are changed for the better. In the best kind of way! When we begin trusting and surrendering, we will begin seeking God in prayer and worship. We begin quieting ourselves so that we can hear from God. We begin hearing God whisper into our hearts. We begin looking for God’s fingerprints all around us. As you begin trusting God deeper, you will ask God to take you deeper. You will want Him to take you deeper! And HE will take you deeper. 

The other night I was praying and God dropped the picture of a peat pot into my mind. It’s just a plain pot with soil being all we can see. We fill them with soil, dig down deep and plant our seed. Do flowers bloom immediately? No! We still only see the plain old peat pot with soil. So much brown! Not beautiful at all! But we know something that others don’t know. There is a seed in there. A seed that promises to grow into a beautiful flower! 

When we allow God to dig deep for us, we wont always see immediate results. Sometimes there is a waiting time, a transition time. Is the seed still there? Yes! Don’t grow impatient and begin digging up the seed that God planted to make sure it is still there. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see these beautiful flowers right away. Don’t begin to doubt that the flowers will never grow up out of the dirt. Whatever God has planted will produce bountiful, beautiful flowers. But only in His timing. 

In our lives sometimes all we see is this boring, brown peat pot & soil. But we can rest assured that if we have given God the shovel and have allowed Him to dig for us, that we will see the beautiful flowers rise up. 

When you begin to dig deeper in your relationship with God, those seeds of trust are planted. You will begin to see new life come up in you! You will see desire replace defeat, joy replace sorrow! You will see love replace heartache and you will see trust replace doubt! You will see Jesus rise up in you; it will be beautiful!